I joined the forum four days ago and spent this time almost exculsively reading the whole of it. Yes, straight from adgramaine’s first post (I do not intend to look for Lone Wolf-related topics on other forums). That explains why you already got some reply by myself.

I decided to sum up some of the useful information I found on these discussions. There are some very interesting tidbits that just get lost deep under the layer of discussion; that is a pity and I hope my archeology work will be of use.

More often than not, I put a link to the initial discussion (pity this forum doesn’t allow individual links). For the few other, Google is your friend (with something like “site:mongoosepublishing.com "exact text in straight quotes"”)

Kai and family. “Nothing [states] that the Kai cannot have families and children […]. The only such restrictions on lifestyle seem to be regarding the accumulation of wealth, and any form of excess when it comes to indulgences. What this means, I take it, is that a Kai is nor permitted to go out and get roaring drunk or have casual sex. Granted, undercover missions can often require behaviour contrary to this, and that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t become a habit. But I imagine that Kai can fall in love and freely do all the things that go along with that.

The New Order monastery may be able to house all of the Kai, albeit in an uncomfortable way (like a siege or for annual festivities. So should have had the First Order (maybe with extra tents and such); “if it didn’t the first order would have been so decimated.” But the First Order monastery should not have any secret tunnel leading out, otherwise other Kai would probably have escaped the first massacre. This tunnel “reflected Lone Wolf’s enhancements based on the bitter lessons of the First Order.”

Kai lords (prior to their destruction) were considered to form a cassel, so several times 200. In Rune War, there are 500 Kai Lords, 5 Grand Masters, and one Supreme Master. If we consider this had been modeled after the old order (which may be wrong, since two wars (book 1-2 and 8-12) took their tolls of young men and even by temporarily lowering the standard, getting enough promising recruits is hard within only some years - later, someone go the same way by guesstimating up to double that size during the heyday, with ”about 800-1000”), we may consider the Kai cassel is composed of two charges and a half or, better, two active charges and one reserve charge, half the size of a normal one.

Some argue that charges may not be a reflection of raw number but of effective firepower; in the case, kai would certainly be worth much more charges, maybe even more than an army. I personally do not consider it that way, seeing how it works in modern-day military (a regiment of French Légionnaires is certainly more apt than a regiment of regular army men; still they are considered as regiment).

So, by MS 5075, the Field Marshal of Sommerlund commands a small cassel of Kai (and I guess the Kai were a full cassel by MS 5000). Small by size, but definitely not by power!

Fighting

How to stand a chance against Kimah: “book 9 became a lot easier when you actually can lose the Sommerswerd and then get it back in section 350, all according to Projet Aon and the Lone Wolf Club newsletters.” Don’t try it against the Chaosmaster (book 11), as you’d need to be without Sommerswerd for at least two books (10 and 11) and maybe three (do you get your stuff back at the beginning of 12?). If you decide to go without Sommerswerd, you can still take the Dagger of Vashna; having it seized by the Darklords is way less dangerous.

Abominable snowman. Idea for flavour and maybe even a scenario:
“You could even have Baknar or Kalkoth crossing the ice bridge and possibly remaining a menace for years after, treat as a mythical beast that no body quite believes in haunting the northern Durncrag, but descending in the most terrible winters to wreak havoc on the most isolated communities.” Yeti inspired, plus good story to make children afraid (eat your soup of the Baknar will come!).

Scenario idea for post-gamebooks: Darklords could come back. Naar can resurrect Darklords “not directly slain by divinities or agents of divinities other than himself”. Those killed by an envoy of Kai (like a Kai lord) are definitely dead (except Vashna, strong enough to try to come back by itself). But the ones killed by the destruction of the Transfuser (book 12) have not been killed by a agent of another divinity… So 14 darklords could maybe come back (15 if counting Vashna)

Drodarin != Old Races. Drodarins are a gathering of Old Races, among them Dwarfs and Giants. This means that some Old Races might not have been part of the gathering (should the natives of Xaagons be non-human, they might qualify as a non-Drodarin Old Race). Those with a little background in Scottish, British or French history may remind of the Auld Alliance (the archaism would fit the concept). See the “Ghurka” parallel (just below) for a close idea.

Vakeros as both a class and an ethnic group: “It makes sense that way. Ghurka is the name of the native people as a whole, but when you talk about them what comes to mind is the guerilla fighters/scouts who fought for the British.”

Technology as a product of Evil (out of the Bor Gun and Boraneses are Dwarves). This latter point may be considered as a by-product of war (which is common in real life) although Joe Dever stated it did not want Magnamund to have a technological future

As a humble (and oft confused) newcomer to Magnamund, this is a marvelous idea!
Good job!
You have saved me millions of hours of reading!
Now if I can only get it on "Books on Tape" I'll be in 7th heaven.

There's a wealth of great information for Lone Wolf in the downloadable Signs and Portents magazine PDF's. Many of the contributors like GregS and Silver Fox, Loresword and others have done a fantastic job!

"There are some things best left unsaid, many things best left unknown!"

Thank you for these links! Unfortunately, I did not have time yet to check Signs & Portents, since I'm also reading about my other RPG of Choice, Transhuman Space. But Port Bax and the Knight of the White Moutain are a priority since ten minutes ago.

It would be cool if you could edit and add in the Magic of Magnamund threads, so that newcomers can see what a wonderful 'group' project it was in some ways. (i.e. August asked everyone here what classes we wanted to see, and what we all voted for are the ones that ended up in the supplement)

One note: At the beginning of the summary, there's a comment about no likely escape tunnel for the original Kai Monastery. Well, according to the new Book 1, there actually is a secret escape tunnel. This may be worth mentioning!